Author: Rachel Carr-Whitworth, Industry and Waste Analyst, Climate Change Committee
Issues of fairness and public spend are often raised when deliberative processes explore citizen views on the household choices needed to meet Net Zero.
But to date there has not been space to explore these topics and the trade-offs that policy makers face in detail.
So the Climate Change Committee, in partnership with Sciencewise, commissioned a citizens’ panel to focus explicitly on the Net Zero transition.
We wanted to work with the public to explore how it could be made accessible and affordable to all households in the UK.
What did we look at?
The panel considered what policies are needed to ensure that household choices to reduce emissions can be made accessible and affordable across four areas:
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Low-carbon home heating and insulation.
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Electric vehicles (EVs) and reducing driving through a shift to public transport and active travel.
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A reduction in average meat and dairy consumption.
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Keeping flying close to today’s levels until lower carbon aviation technology is developed.
As part of the process, citizen’s explored the CCC’s distributional model, which shows how different households (with different building types, tenancy statuses, incomes and lifestyle patterns) will experience costs or savings as a result of the changes to home heating and driving listed above.
The citizens discussed what costs or savings were acceptable or not, and what policies they would choose, given the impacts on costs and savings for different households.
The findings
We found that following deliberation, there was broad support from the citizens’ panel on the importance of household low-carbon choices in meeting Net Zero by 2050.
Whilst the panel felt that a shift in household choices could be achieved, they were clear that this requires supportive policy from government to make these choices easy and affordable.
It was important to them that:
– those on low incomes or less able to make those choices were protected from potential increased costs.
– there is proactive information provided on what the most impactful household choices are
– the government and businesses address misinformation about low carbon technologies.
Home heating and driving
It was also clear that affordability was a key concern; the panel felt that the upfront costs of home heating technologies required government support to ensure their affordability.
Overall, we found that upfront costs were a priority – even over long-term savings – for household purchase decisions. The panel called for grants to cover the additional upfront costs of home heating, as well as policies to make electricity cheaper to address running costs.
The panel was also strongly supportive of phase-out dates for fossil fuel boilers and cars to provide a clear message to households and businesses on the direction of change.
There was also support for energy efficiency standards, and funding to improve public and active travel. The panel were interested in exploring ways in which the private sector can contribute to some of the costs of switching to low-carbon technologies.
Meat and dairy consumption
Most of the panel were willing to reduce average meat and dairy consumption. They supported policies such as information provision, changes to supermarket layouts, portion sizes and investment to support the development of alternative proteins. They felt that affordable alternatives and protecting farmers livelihoods are key for the Government to consider as we reduce consumption of meat and dairy.
Flying
When it came to flying, the panel tended to see this as more of a ‘luxury’ choice than other household choices, but valued the ability to travel abroad on holiday. They generally accepted the need for ticket prices to increase as a result of policies to reduce emissions from the aviation sector, provided the ability of low-income families to go on an annual holiday abroad was protected. The most popular policy was a combination of a frequent flier levy and emissions-based tax, which would target those who fly frequently and the most polluting flights.
In conclusion
At the end of the process, panel members predominantly commented that they felt positive and hopeful about the Net Zero transition. With the right policies in place, the majority felt that Net Zero can be delivered in a way which is accessible and affordable for all households.
This is the first time the CCC commissioned a citizens’ panel to inform our carbon budget advice.
The process has been very insightful, informing our Seventh Carbon Budget advice to Government.
We are grateful for the inputs from our oversight group, Lancaster University, the specialist speakers during the panel sessions, Sciencewise, Ipsos, Ursus and of course the citizens themselves.
Read the full findings here.
Rachel Carr-Whitworth is an analyst at the Climate Change Committee. Her work has focussed on exploring the role of households and public engagement in the transition to Net Zero, including the use of citizens’ panels to inform the CCC’s advice to government.
